


The deadly embrace of memories (FFXIVWrite2020 Day 04 - Clinch)

by Ivelia



Series: FFXIV Write 2020 [4]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood Spoilers, Gen, Tumblr: FFXIVwrite2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:07:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26306806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ivelia/pseuds/Ivelia
Summary: Part of my attempt for #FFXIVWrite2020 - September 4 (Day 4 - Clinch)As she and Yugiri prepare to embush the Doman Viceroy, the Warrior of Light recollects something...Spoiler for Stormblood (4.0) main story quest
Series: FFXIV Write 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1906951
Kudos: 2





	The deadly embrace of memories (FFXIVWrite2020 Day 04 - Clinch)

**Author's Note:**

> Let it be known that I wasn't late, I posted with seconds to spare (even if I had to write end / begin notes afterwards xD)  
> If was late I would have gone all the way and edited the end that is almost as dry as my own hair end, and screened this up for mistakes and repetitions, but I have a day 5 to work on and I don't want to finish that last second ever again, almost shaved 10 years off my life here xD

> And then he stood before us, his cornered prey. Alone and unarmed. He beckoned us to come forward and fight for our lives. One by one, my comrades charged. Fearless and unflinching, he would dance amidst their blades for a time, and then draw close, as if to embrace…One…after…another. He made us watch. Do you understand? He made us watch.

She left Lyse with the visibly traumatised infantry soldier to speak about the stories of the rebellion, his recollections sending her back to that very unpleasant encounter in Ralgr’s Reach. Killing a host of elite warriors by literally bear-hugging them to death... What a terrible, pointless death, to feel their lives departing their bodies at the sound of their own bones creaking and cracking under the pressure… She felt queasy trying to imagine the scene:

\- (Seems like the guy himself, alright.) Unimaginable strength and ability at the service of cold blooded murder, indifferent to any standard of decency or morality. The despair they must have felt at the inexorability of that mountain of a man was all too familiar to her.

She remembered how she herself waltzed arrogantly in the resistance hideout, having heard from the fleeing survivors of the ongoing imperial attack; at that time, following Krile’s idea, she had came as a healer, her assessment being that although with this arrangement, although she would be lacking in offensive strength, she would still be more that enough to deal with  _ mere humans _ in a direct confrontation. Remembering her unbridled hubris of that time, and what it had almost cost them, was almost bringing bile to her lips. 

_ She had taken him too lightly _ , emboldened by her unhindered path slaying through elder gods with unparalleled (relative) ease. She had heard that the Garlean Crown Prince was singularly gifted in the martial arts, but… which of her opponents did not come with bards praising their prowess to the skies? They had fallen to her blade all the same. And after all, if most reports were to be believed, she herself was a five headed, eight armed she-monster, able to lay low armies with a single look. This is why, even as she noticed that, given the fact that his own stature had been understated by all accounts that had made their way to her, there might be more to him than just pro-Imperial propaganda, even as his weapon was still glistening with the blood of her comrades, she didn’t believe.  _ Killing men was deceptively easy, after all _ . This was something that she would be teaching to that oversized child crying for entertainment.

The result had been… A complete fucking disaster. Incommensurable strength, every strike aiming sound and true, leaving absolutely no opening. Unprepared to his onslaught, she instantly fell out of pace, unable to even begin to recover from just the first exchange… If dodging frantically to avoid getting bisected, and barely parrying sword blows with a decorative healer cane while bleeding your own aether to prevent your comrades from entering Thal’s gilded halls prematurely could be called an exchange. Getting caught unawares by an enemy of that calibre felt like trying to get your hand on to victory, only to catch a single thread of it and feel, see its very fabric unravel through your hand. Before she could even realize, she laid on the floor, eating sand in broken defeat. 

“Pathetic” His evaluation was harsh, but she couldn’t deny it. The bitter taste of failure... somehow, it was familiar, but feeling it physically like this… She had not missed that one bit. In the end, he did not even deem her worthy to be killed, which was a rather good news for everyone but her pride. It seems that he had been so disgusted by her flailing performance that he just up and left the place. Retrospectively, learning of his immoral love of a good challenge, explained why he didn’t even bother offing her at that time. She had been too used to abusing the preternatural sense granted by Her gift in battle, letting her own battle senses dull, rotting under the ease she had been able to dispatch her opponents with. But in front of such an adversary, just relying on those visions and fluctuations was not enough.

And this was this man that Yugiri was now hell bent on trying to assassinate. She internally sighed. Looking at the flame in the eyes of the shinobi, she instinctively knew that she would not take no for an answer; a complete refusal would only drive her to go on her own, without anyone’s knowledge or approval. At least, if they were to go together, like this, she might have a chance to come back alive.

Of course, it didn’t go as planned. 

Even after she had taken the measure of the enemy in front of her, and after they tried to take him unawares, he had still been able to tear through their attacks like a hot knife through butter.

\- (Why…?) She suppressed the bile that had been forced to her throat by a vicious blow that had nearly sent her flying into a nearby wall, and gripped her weapon tightly to hide her trembling. It hit her. (This feeling… it’s  _ fear _ .) That  _ good old fear _ , paralysing her entrails, shortening her breath, depriving her brain cells of the oxygen needed to function properly, making her movements slow and sluggish, uncoordinated. Did she fear this man? Was she such a crybaby that one defeat was enough to send her wailing under her bed..? (No...!) As the rhythmic steps of his armoured boots approached, they almost sounded like the familiar tingling that heralded the visions of someone’s past. Except that time, it was trying to connect to herself, to the echoes of a past she couldn’t quite reach. She shook her head, trying to see behind this current scene… (What was this again?)

A panicked voice, asking her to help look for a missing relative.

The purple, aetherically charged skies of... Mor Dhona?

A sharp pain as she clumsily missed her attack again, and the brutal counter that almost rearranged her organs in positions that were less than natural, returning her to her present, less than enviable reality. She almost coughed blood, admonishing herself:

\- (What the heck am I doing?) This was not the moment to remember this; The past is of no import, if remembering would quite literally kill you. Once again, she had messed up, big time. She heard his mocking, berating voice as she looked at the broken body of the friend she had failed to protect, once again. She shook her head, trying to disperse this memory she had so longed to know.

> You're better than most, I'll grant you that. But not good enough. This ends now.

His sword came down at inhuman speed to finally claim her life but… 

\- (This disgrace… This is not what I can do… !) Her sudden focus made her movement sharper, connecting, parrying, so close, yet so far, from the realm of her true abilities. It was barely enough to protect her life, as well as earn her a promise to see each other on the battlefield to show what she was truly capable of.

**Author's Note:**

> That quote has been turning in my head since I looked up the definition of the word. I tried to fight it, replace it, but I couldn't deny it xD
> 
> Clinch - A move in boxing or related martial disciplines where you kinda hug your opponent I guess? / to embrace / to make final, to settle and issue / Also a subgroup had translated the catchphrase from KRW as "This clinches it" in the sense "this solves the mystery"
> 
> I’ve never understood how, from a plot standpoint, how comes that Zenos obliterated our asses in both Rhalgr's Reach and Doma, yet we were an even match in Ala Migho, even though we didn’t get an epic training montage.   
> (We can all agree that levels aren’t valid plotwise, else we’d just have to call in random guards from a high level outpost area to kick some ass at the beginning at the story, and bam, done.)  
> So here I try to Mary-sue my way around this here xD
> 
> The 1st time we fight Zenos reminded me of that encounter at the end of the lvl50 MSQ back in 1.0, a literal decade ago. At that time, Gaius was fucking menacing and not the butt of all ascian jokes, and we had to get the Scions to back our peasant ass out of that fight xD I'll forever remember the panic as that unstoppable mass of “I’ll fuck your shit up” came out of the purple mist of Mor Dhona dangling a dead guy by his neck... So when I had to face Zenos the first time I had this feeling in mind xD Also I made the mistake of doing this as a healer and this increases the “FUCK HOW DO I KILL THIS GUY HE'S INVINCIBLE AND I'LL MELT IF HE TOUCHES ME" factor by a lot.


End file.
